Red Fort attack will not affect peace moves

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Government will not be deterred in its peace initiative in Jammu & Kashmir following Friday's storming of Delhi's Red Fort by a suicide squad of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and it will allow All Party Hurriyat Conference leaders to go to Islamabad for talks to "solve
the tangle", top government sources confirmed on Saturday.

"The government is aware that certain hostile forces want to sabotage its peace initiative. But our prime minister is all the more determined that such incidents will not shake his resolve to find a solution. It will allow Hurriyat leaders to proceed to Islamabad for preparatory talks," a senior official of the
ministry of external affairs told rediff.com.

He pointed out that the government had information that these hostile forces, including the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, had been rattled by New Delhi's peace initiative on Kashmir, which was still eliciting praise from the international community.

"We are aware that similar attacks by these desperate elements are likely to follow. The government will do everything to apprehend the culprits and they will be dealt sternly. But our peace initiative will not be derailed," the official asserted.

He referred to recent statements by the "hardliners'' in Islamabad and Kabul that their jihad [holy war] to "liberate Kashmir'' will continue with attacks on Indian security forces not only in Jammu and Kashmir but in other parts of India.

"The prime minister is determined that despite such attacks, his government will do everything to restore peace and normalcy in J&K. That's why the government has taken a decision to permit the Hurriyat
leaders to proceed to Islamabad so that groundwork can be laid for bringing Pakistan to the negotiating table to solve the tangle," he pointed out.

He indicated that the official spokesman of the MEA was likely to emphasise that New Delhi's peace initiative on Kashmir would continue despite grave provocation by the terrorists.

It is learnt that Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani has summoned a high-level meeting of his ministry to take stock of security measures in the capital in the wake of the storming of the Red Fort.

Government intelligence sleuths are teeming in the Jama masjid and the Red Fort area, which has been sealed The security dragnet has also been extended to "sensitive government installations'' and buildings, a ministry of home official contended.